“We were wiped out by Irene,” Ferris, 65, of Waterbury said at about noon Monday. “So I heed the advice of the Weather Service and the government. And everything else at this point.”

The question on the mind of Ferris and other Vermonters through the day Monday was whether the state would suffer a gut punch from Hurricane Sandy and its winds, forecast to reach 80 mph in some populated places, or whether the storm might give the state only a glancing blow.

As people purchased supplies and sandbagged low-lying homes and businesses, and as state emergency managers called in workers to monitor and then respond to the storm, there was one common thread: Prepare, but hope.

“Our goal,” Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn said during a midday news conference, “is that we wake up Wednesday morning, and all is good, and all we’re doing is cleaning up a few trees.”

First light Tuesday will offer the first glimpse of whether that came to pass.

Late Monday, Interstate 89 and US 2 were shut down because of downed power lines. And Burlington schools joined many of their brethren in deciding to close today, citing anticipated power outages, the weather and a shortage of available staff.

Meteorologists and state officials advised Vermonters throughout the day Monday to stock up and hunker down as Hurricane Sandy ripped northward along the East Coast, causing extensive damage and flooding south of Vermont as the storm closed in on the Green Mountains. Even whenthe storm’s center was still off the coast of New Jersey, Sandy caused thousands of power outages in Vermont, prompted school closures and event cancellations, disrupted travel and left people keeping one eye on the sky and the other on the forecast.

Vermonters likened Sandy to Tropical Storm Irene, but state officials said this time around, people should brace for strong, steady winds more than flooding.

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A year ago, floodwater from Irene swamped Ferris’ house on Main Street. He measured the high-water mark in his living room at 6 1/2 feet. Ferris gutted the downstairs, replaced the sheetrock and regrouped with the help of family, friends and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Just in time for Sandy.

“I just hope we don’t have to go through anything like that again,” Ferris said as he left the Village Market with his supplies. “I don’t want to ever restart from scratch again in my life.”

Down the road from the market, at the Department of Public Safety’s headquarters, preparation for Sandy, started last week, ramped up at 7 a.m. Monday. Inside the Emergency Operations Center, officials from FEMA, the National Weather Service, the American Red Cross and various state agencies tracked Sandy’s trail of destruction via satellite.

At about 11 a.m., Commissioner Flynn and other officials held a news conference in the operations center to bring reporters up to date on the situation.

“We do expect this to be more of a wind event than a flooding event,” Flynn said. “At this point, we do feel that we’re adequately prepared.”

The Vermont National Guard stood at the ready, he said, a day after Gov. Peter Shumlin declared a state of emergency. Shelters across Vermont, most of them schools, had opened their doors.

Forecasters predicted southern Vermont would catch the worst of it, so the specialized Colchester Technical Rescue response team headed down to Manchester to be closer to any anticipated rescues. The Hartford Fire Department’s swift-water rescue team geared up at the station. Vermont’s 300-plus state troopers were prepared to report to work late Monday or to wait by the phone to be called in.

Damaging winds

Scott Whittier, a National Weather Service meteorologist stationed in South Burlington, told reporters that Sandy “will turn into what we call an extra-tropical system, kind of like a giant, powerful nor’easter.”

“The wind field is going to be tremendous,” he said, “and you’re going to see damaging winds all the way up to the Canadian border.”

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He predicted those winds would blast parts of Vermont at 60-80 mph — perhaps topping 100 mph on the summit of Mount Mansfield, the state’s highest point — and peak between 8 p.m. Monday and 2 a.m. Tuesday. Similar winds swept across Vermont’s western slopes in April 2007 and December 2010, Whittier said, but not for the duration expected with Sandy.

Wind from Sandy, expected to peak overnight, was forecast to begin abating through the day Tuesday.

The storm and its 90 mph winds were expected to smash ashore near Cape May, N.J., at about 8 p.m. Monday. The massive storm was pushing enormous, destructive storm surges into coastal communities along much of the East Coast. The storm spewed gale-force winds and flooding rains over a wide area of the Northeast, and dumped heavy snow in the central Appalachians.

In Vermont, Sandy’s winds were increasing Monday evening and driving up power outages to more than 13,600 in all but the Franklin, Grand Isle and Lamoille counties as of 6:30 p.m. Winds were forecast to slowly diminish Tuesday, but gusts might be strong enough during much of the day to create fresh power failures.

Scattered heavy showers also are likely to continue Tuesday, but widespread flooding is unlikely in Vermont, forecasters said. The storm also could produce near record highs Tuesday of close to 70 degrees.

Many school officials in Chittenden County decided late Monday afternoon to cancel classes Tuesday, anticipating that high winds and rain could fell trees, sever power lines and knock out electricity. Some schools let out early Monday and called off after-school sports and other activities, although the storm’s full force had yet to arrive in Chittenden County as of late afternoon.

Winooski were still scheduled to open as of 6 p.m., but officials urged parents to check websites and be attentive to electronic alerts for potential closures as the evening wore on. Officials in other districts issued similar cautions.

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During Monday morning’s news conference, a TV in the Emergency Operations Center broadcast coverage of the storm from New York City; on a second TV, a reporter battled wind and rain in Scituate, Mass. The storm track and radar precipitation images were prominently displayed on a series of screens.

'Not very scared'

The Department of Public Safety’s second-story Emergency Operations Center overlooks a stretch of the Winooski River that flooded the Waterbury complex during Irene, prompting an evacuation of the facility.

Monday, Commissioner Flynn said he hoped better communication between his department and the public would alleviate much of the anxiety surrounding Sandy. Flynn said that post-Irene, Public Safety had made a concerted effort to keep Vermonters in the loop before and during natural disasters.

Mary Grace, who like Clark Ferris shopped at the Village Market on Monday morning, works at a skating rink on the banks of the Winooski in Waterbury. Grace said although she did not expect The Ice Center to flood, she feared Sandy’s winds might knock out the building’s power and cause the ice to melt.

“That’s the big worry, the wind,” Grace said. “But, in general, I’m not very scared about this.”

She added that others in Waterbury, still recovering from Irene, felt differently.

“I have friends in the village,” Grace said. “One of them said she was praying. A lot of them are scared.”